Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Monsignor Charles Pope is my favorite priest blogger. His blogs are full of Christ's wisdom about the most pressing subjects in modern life and his latest "Accepting Disability in a World Obsessed with Perfection" is no exception.

His blog is in response to the Holy Fathers comments while meeting with a group of disabled individuals, that "Love, not some idea of perfection, leads to Happiness".“In an age when care for one’s body has become an obsession and a big business, anything imperfect has to be hidden away, since it threatens the happiness and serenity of the privileged few and endangers the dominant model,” the pope said. “In some cases, we are even told that it is better to eliminate them as soon as possible, because they become an unacceptable economic burden in time of crisis.”

People with such attitudes, he said, “fail to understand the real meaning of life, which also has to do with accepting suffering and limitations.”

And for Jesus, he said, the sick and the weak, those cast aside by society — like the woman in the Gospel story — are precisely the ones he loves most.The only path to happiness is love, Pope Francis said. “How many disabled and suffering persons open their hearts to life again as soon as they realize they are loved! How much love can well up in a heart simply with a smile!”

Monsignor reflects; Is there such a thing as a life not worth living? Many in our culture seem to believe that there is. There has arisen the tragically ironic idea that death is a form of therapy, that an appropriate treatment for disabled unborn children is to kill them. Of course death is neither a treatment nor a therapy; it cannot be considered an acceptable solution for the one who loses his or her life. Yet this is often the advice that parents in this situation are given.All of this “advice” and pressure goes a long way toward explaining why more than 90% of unborn children with a poor prenatal diagnosis are aborted. We in the Church cannot remain silent in the face of this; we must reach out compassionately to families experiencing such a crisis. Many of them are devastated by the news that their baby may have serious disabilities. Often they descend into shock and are overwhelmed by fear, conflicting feelings, and even anger towards God or others. Sometimes the greatest gifts we can give them are time, information, and the framework of faith.

Here is my response; I just finished reading the book "Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck" by Adam Cohen. In the wake of Darwin's theory of evolution, a wave of social Darwinism in the early 1900's gave birth the the ideology of eugenics, the idea that some humans were genetically superior to others and we ought to suppress the birth or end the lives of the inferior. Eugenics pervaded society and inspired Margaret Sanger to champion birth control for the 'inferior races' and disabled whom she called "human weeds.The Supreme Court codified this idea in the infamous 1927 "Buck V Bell" decision where Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes approving of the sterilization of those the State deemed 'feebleminded' said in the 8-1 majority decision; "Three generations of imbeciles are enough!"This ideology led directly to the Nazi holocaust, which began with the slaughter of the disabled in the T4 Program, in fact at Nuremberg the "Buck V Bell" decision was cited by those seeking to excuse their participation in the Concentration Camps.We congratulate ourselves on having progressed since then; yet we have merely shifted the 'responsibility' of killing those deemed inferior to their mothers. I interviewed many mothers of special needs children for my book "A Special Mother is Born" and some claimed the pressure to abort from their doctors was so great, they even tried to make them feel guilty of imposing a disabled sibling on their children. All of these moms said they can't imagine life without the love of their child.

Thank God they are the valiant 10%, braver than those who colluded with the Nazis, and the Supreme Court and many in Congress!

Grant, O Lord, that nonemay love Thee less this daybecause of me.That never a word or act of minemay turn one soul from Thee;and, ever daring, yet one moregrace I would implore,that many souls this day,because of me,may love Thee more.Amen.

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Prayer to Obtain Graces by God’s Servant’s IntercessionGod, who created man in your image and intended him to share your glory,We thank you for having granted to your Church the gift of professor Jerome Lejeune, a distinguished servant of life. He knew how to place his immense intelligence and deep faith at the service of the defense of human life, especially unborn life, always seeking to treat and to cure. A passionate witness to truth and charity, he knew how to reconcile faith and reason in the sight of today’s world.By his intercession, and according to your will, we ask you to grant us the graces we implore, hoping that he will soon become one of your saints. Amen.

As the cause for canonization of Lejeune moves forward, testimonies of medically inexplicable cures sought by his intercession will be recorded, and holy cards with this prayer are available at this address:Postulation de la cause de béatificationet de canonisation du Serviteur de Dieu Jérôme LejeuneAbbaye Saint-Wandrille F-76490Saint-Wandrille, France.